Giggles

"Giggles" is the nickname of an octogenarian whose infectious laughter refreshes everyone who meets her. She says she finds something to laugh about in the midst of whatever is happening to her, good or ill. Today her room in an assisted living home is decorated with her stuffed animals and the part of her collection of angel figures that she was able to bring along when she moved out of her own home.

She laughs about the effect of aging on her once beautiful singing voice, and then tells me a story about one of the reasons she believes in prayer.

She had fallen in her kitchen in her own home where she was living alone. When she regained consciousness she found she could not get up. She called for help but no one could hear her from inside her house. She prayed that God would help her to get to the other room where she could reach a telephone, but she was unable to get there. Thinking that her prayers had been answered in the negative, she began to pray that someone would find her. Only a few minutes passed before a voice at the window asked whether she needed any help. It was the window-washer who came into her house, helped her get up and telephone some neighbors.

The window-washer was not scheduled to wash her windows until the following week.

File under: prayer